Kingston waterfront initiatives to evolve through partnerships with developers, community groups, mayor says

The waterfront in Kingston as seen from the Wurts St. bridge.
Tania Barricklo – Daily Freeman

KINGSTON >> During the course of about 15 years, big ideas – some even framed in terms of Mystic Seaport-style scale – have surfaced for the city’s waterfront.

City officials, as far back as the late 1990s when T.R. Gallo was mayor, have described the waterfront area as a “jewel of the Hudson River,” a spot prime for development.

In the past, the city has undertaken several initiatives, including the compiling of an extensive waterfront development plan, in hopes of jump-starting serious improvement.

Yet actual plans, the big ideas, for one reason or another, either lay dormant, have been outright abandoned, or just never materialized for government review.

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And while some amenities – a public promenade at the Rondout Creek, a Broadway plant-hosting median strip, and cleaned-up junkyards – have added attraction, the larger, more complicated projects have not been built.

Mayor Shayne Gallo, though, says he wants development to occur, even “encouraging” it. Gallo says his administration is “partnering” with developers, community groups and others to make it happen.

And, Gallo said, while the bigger, past-proposed developments either remain in limbo or are no longer in the hopper, other waterfront improvements continue to evolve.

Gallo said the city is moving forward with construction of a 1 1/2 –mile rail trail, from Midtown to the Rondout Creek and Hudson River. Officials are seeking requests for proposals from companies to remove railroad ties and rails from the path that is there now.

Gallo also said parts of the waterfront are becoming known as a museum district, with renovations being done to turn the former Reher Bakery building on Broadway into an immigrant history center and a planned Irish Cultural Center nearby.

Waterfront recreational activities, Gallo says, are plentiful with, among other things, kayaking festivals, plans for a new fishing dock, and more bulkhead for docking.

Gallo points out the Hudson River Maritime Museum has now become homeport to the Clearwater Sloop, plans are afloat for the former Rosita’s Restaurant on the Rondout Creek, and improvements have been made at the Trolley Museum of New York State, with more to come by way of track it uses.

Gallo says celebrations remain a stalwart favorite at the waterfront: the Fourth of July, Hooley on the Hudson, and Italian Festival Day.

Scenic Hudson of Poughkeepsie, an environmental group, has compiled an extensive report on protecting the waterfront against rising flood waters. The city had formed a Waterfront Task Force to help with it.

On the horizon

Gregg Swanzey, who is director of the city’s Office for Economic Development and Strategic Partnership, also says a new effort to attract development is about to get underway.

Swanzey says the city will use a $430,000 grant to conduct a full-scale, environmental impact study of 70-acres of waterfront. The study will take 20 months to complete and performed by Perkins & Will of New York City.

“This is the kind of planning that is going to jump-start the waterfront,” Swanzey said in a recent interview.

Gallo described the study as one that will be “more focused, a more quantitative analysis of that area for development.”

And while Gallo’s administration remains focused on the waterfront, the larger projects proposed over the years have not seen much in the way of actually materializing.

Gallo and Swanzey say, for the most, it is all about the money. The two are convinced that an overall poor economy and bad housing market has led to stalling.

Gallo said he continues to encourage waterfront development by maintaining a “friendly” review in the city’s planning and zoning process.

Gallo said the city also needs to do what it can to gather up financial resources to assist in development.

One example of that was the city’s successful effort to obtain a $1.2 million to help construct a $5.8 million waterfront promenade along property where the Hudson Landing housing complex is planned.

The city’s Planning Board started a review in September, but design plans for it are not complete.

The Hudson Landing project itself calls for construction of 1,658 mixed-type housing units. The project got conceptual approval in 2010 after eight years of study, with the idea of reviewing phased-in portions of the complex as submitted by the developer, AVR Acquisition Corp. of Yonkers.

The first phase calls for the construction of 338 units of the housing, but no plans for it have been submitted. A developer’s agreement between the city, town of Ulster, and AVR has been finalized.

No units have been built, but Gallo says he is hopeful that when the promenade, which will be for public use, gets built the housing will follow.

If not, the city still benefits by having better access to the Hudson River, Gallo said.

“If it doesn’t happen in the time we would like to see, we will have something for the community’ Gallo said. “We win anyway.”

Mixed bag

The Hudson Landing is just one of the big ideas; another was called Sailor’s Cove on the Hudson.

In all, that project called for 358 units of housing to be built on the former Hutton Brickyard property on the Hudson River banks. The Sailor’s Cove on the Hudson project was first proposed in 2002.

Recently, Gallo said the developer of the Sailor’s Cove project has sold off the property. Gallo said no one has since contacted the city with any new plan.

Seven years ago, New York City developer Charles Blaichmann backed off a plan to build a 57-room hotel on the Rondout Creek. It was to be called the Noah Hotel.

The plan met with little controversy and much in the way of support from former mayors T.R. Gallo and James Sottile.

Today, the current mayor says Blaichmann, who still owns the property off Abeel Street, has expressed interest again in building something there.

In December, Gallo had said the developer has his eye on constructing a mixed-use complex at site of the former Forst meat-packing plant.

The idea is for the complex to be a mix of commercial, housing, and hotel uses, Gallo has said.

Still, there are no plans officially submitted to the city’s Planning Office.

But the city has received a benefit.

Gallo said 50 public parking spots have been created on the site, with potential of having 50 more once contaminated soil put there by another developers is removed.

The city has a verbal OK from Blaichmann to use the property, without charge, according to Corporation Counsel Andrew Zweben.

Gallo said that Blaichmann has also expressed interest in purchasing other properties in Kingston.

“Charles Blaichmann is very interested in developing that site, but he is not there where he can come to the Planning Board,” Gallo said. “But in the interim, he has been kind enough to lease (the parking lot) to the city (for one dollar).”

Parnership prospects

Gallo has also said he is attempting to reach a partnership agreement with Blaichman for eventual construction of a 250-space parking garage at the site.

Such a garage, Gallo said, would cost about $5 million to construct.

It also is unknown how Blaichman and the city would pay the cost of building a garage, Gallo said.

No specific plans have been submitted to the city for review.

In 2008, Sottile said the project was dead because Blaichman could not finance a $5 million gap in the construction cost.

Sottile said his administration did “everything we could” to help make the Noah a reality. Sottile had touted the plan as a catalyst to the city’s waterfront revitalization.

In the past, city officials have pinned some hope on Robert Iannucci, a retired Brooklyn who has purchased much in the way of waterfront property including the 20-acre Island Dock near T.R. Gallo Park, the former Cornell Steamboat boiler repair shop, and acreage once the home of a junkyard.

But no substantial plans have surfaced yet for the parcels.

“I think Mr. Iannucci is a victim of the market and a lack of capital,” Gallo said. “He is very appreciative and very grateful for [city support] and his vision. But it has stumbled because the resources are not there to proceed with his objective.”

Gallo, like Sottile, is hopeful that one day the waterfront will turn into a so-called “destination.”

“I think it’s moving in the right direction to become a destination,” Gallo said.

About the Author

Paul Kirby is a reporter for the Freeman, covering Kingston politics. He has been at the Freeman since August 1996. Reach the author at pkirby@freemanonline.com
or follow Paul on Twitter: @PaulatFreeman.